Results of a new study at the University of Haifa have shown no difference in the risk of developing schizophrenia between second-generation Holocaust survivors and those whose parents were not exposed to the Holocaust. However, an examination of various sub-groups showed that second-generation survivors whose parents were babies during the Holocaust are at higher risk of suffering from a more severe course of schizophrenia.

“Likely these are transmitted from the parental environment to the child,” Prof. Stephen Levine, the lead author of the study, commented. The study was undertaken by Levine and Prof. Itzhak Levav of the Department of Community Mental Health at the University of Haifa, together with Inna Pugachova, Rinat Yoffe and Yifat Becher from Israel’s Ministry of Health. The study, published in Schizophrenia Research, was based on information on 51,233 individuals who immigrated to Israel through 1966, and was made possible thanks to the cooperation of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health, with funds from Israel Science Foundation.

The study’s population included individuals who experienced the Holocaust directly, while the comparison group was comprised of individuals who immigrated to Israel before the Holocaust began in their countries of origin. All the second-generation subjects were born between 1948 and 1989, and were followed through 2014 to ascertain whether or not they suffered from schizophrenia.

The question of the impact of exposure to the Holocaust among second-generation survivors is the subject of disagreement among researchers. Clinical-based studies have found that trauma increases psychopathology in the offspring of Holocaust survivors, while community based studies have found that there is no such effect among adults, as noted by Levav and collaborators in two large representative samples in Israel.

The researchers sought to examine whether parental Holocaust exposure is associated with schizophrenia among second-generation survivors. The good news is that the association was not significant.

However, a more specific inquiry showed that offspring of mothers with Holocaust exposure in the womb only were 1.7 times more likely to have a more severe course of the disorder. Similarly, offspring of mothers exposed to the Holocaust in the womb and thereafter were 1.5 more likely to have a more severe course than persons not exposed. Offspring of fathers exposed in the womb and thereafter were 1.5 times more likely, and those whose fathers had been exposed at ages 1–2 had offspring whose risk of having a worse course of the disorder was higher than persons not exposed.

Transgenerational genocide exposure was unrelated to the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring, but was related to a course of deterioration in schizophrenia during selected parental critical periods of early life. This implies an epigenetic mechanism – namely arising from environmental influences on the way genes expressed themselves. The findings inform health policy decision makers about refugees who suffered from extreme adversity, and extend existing results regarding the transgenerational transfer of the effects of famine and stress in parental early life.

It appears that last December’s unprecedented snowstorm produced August babies.

Hospitals throughout Israel noticed a baby boom last month, nine months after a month of a wicked early winter storm that flooded parts of the country and left a blanket of snow in much of the north and center of the country, bringing many areas to a standstill.

Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot reported 700 births took place this August compared with 500 births last year.

The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where women gave birth in a delivery room reinforced against rockets, saw 1,484 births compared with 1,300 the previous year. Most of the new-born babies, as usual, were Bedouin.

“There were a few days in December that we couldn’t leave the house because of the storm, so it was a great opportunity to work on making a baby,” new mother Oxana Belayev told Ynet

What will summer rocket fire bring? Check back with us in nine months.

Israel provides new proof that cigarette smoking has a bad effect on children.

A woman took her baby, age 18 months, to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa Saturday night after the toddler chewed up and swallowed two cigarettes.

The mother had left the room and left a package of cigarettes on the table. When she returned, she discovered two filters on the table.

The doctors examined the baby to make sure there were no ill effects from the nicotine, and the baby was released from the hospital after several hours.

“Chewing tobacco can cause vomiting, changes in blood pressure, rapid pulse, incapacitation and even death, said Prof. Yedidya Bentor of the Rambam Institute on Poison. He said eating cigarettes by children is not common.

It is not known if the mother decided to give up smoking following the incident.

A new study by researchers at Tel Aviv and Hebrew universities reveals that eating a good breakfast can have a positive impact on women with problems of infertility.

In recent years, nutritional research has found that weight is affected not only by the level of calorie intake, but also by the question of when to consume large amounts of calories.

New research concludes that a big breakfast increases fertility among woman who suffer from menstrual irregularities, according to Prof. Oren Froy of Hebrew University and researchers from Tel Aviv University and Wolfson Medical Center.

The study examined whether meal times have an impact on the health of woman with menstrual irregularities due to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which affects approximately 6-10 percent of women of reproductive age, disrupting their reproductive abilities.

This syndrome creates a resistance to insulin, leading to an increase in male sex hormones (androgens), and can also cause menstrual irregularities, hair loss on the scalp though increase in body hair, acne, fertility problems and future diabetes.

The experiment was carried out at Wolfson Medical Center on 60 women over a 12-week period. The women, from the ages of 25 to 39, were thin with a BMI (body mass index) of less than 23 and suffered from PCOS.

The women were divided into two groups and were allowed to consume about 1,800 calories a day. The difference between the groups was the timing of their largest meal. One group consumed their largest meal, approximately 980 calories, at breakfast, while the other at dinner.

Researchers wanted to examine whether the schedule of calorie intake affects insulin resistance and the increase in androgens among woman suffering from PCOS. The women kept records of exactly what they ate.

The findings, recently published in the journal Clinical Science, showed improved results for the group that consumed a big breakfast. Glucose levels and insulin resistance decreased by 8 percent, while the second group (“dinner”) showed no changes.

Another finding showed that among the “breakfast” group, testosterone (one of the androgens) levels decreased by nearly 50 percent, while the “dinner” group level stayed neutral. In addition, there was a much higher rate of ovulating woman within the “breakfast group” compared to the “dinner” group, showing that eating a hearty breakfast leads to an increase in the level of fertility among woman with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

“The research clearly demonstrates that indeed the amount of calories we consume daily is very important, but the timing as to when we consume them is even more important,” according to Prof. Froy.